Curated Bible verses

Bible Verses About Death, Grief, and Hope

The Bible does not treat death as a tidy subject. Its poetry makes room for grief, its narratives show people mourning, and its New Testament writings speak about resurrection and hope.

Passage generator

Draw your passages

Change the filters to shape your selection. Each draw has no repeated results.

How many Testament Book Length

If a filter has too few matches, we’ll show the exact count.

Your selection

Results

How this collection was chosen

Read with care

This collection includes lament as well as consolation. When sharing a verse with someone grieving, their circumstances and the time they need to mourn matter more than finding a quick answer.

Read John 11 as a narrative: Jesus’ tears come before the raising of Lazarus, so the story does not dismiss grief.

How to use these passages

For a grieving reader, a lament or a quiet promise of presence may be more suitable than an explanation. Read slowly, leave room for silence, and avoid turning a verse into a claim about what someone else should feel.

Nine places to begin

Passages from this collection

This editorial collection contains 119 distinct passages. Read these examples in context, or use the generator to discover more.

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Read Psalm 23 →

Psalm 90:12

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Read Psalm 90 →

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Read Ecclesiastes 3 →

Isaiah 25:8

He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.

Read Isaiah 25 →

John 11:25-26

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Read John 11 →

John 11:35

Jesus wept.

Read John 11 →

Romans 8:38-39

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read Romans 8 →

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read 1 Corinthians 15 →

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4 →

Browse the collection

Find a starting point

Choose a theme, then read the chapter around any verse that stands out.